MISSOURI
San Francisco Chronicle
INDEPENDENCE, Mo. (AP) — The Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph has reached a $2.25 settlement in a wrongful-death lawsuit brought by a Missouri couple who contended their 14-year-old boy committed suicide because of repeated sexual abuse by a Kansas City priest.
The boy, Brian Teeman, of Independence, died of a gunshot wound in November 1983. His parents, Donald and Rosemary Teeman, filed the lawsuit in Jackson County court in September 2011 after a man who was an altar boy with their son told them of the alleged abuse, The Kansas City Star reported (http://bit.ly/16jL4g5).
Jury selection for the trial was underway Monday in Jackson County court in Independence when the settlement agreement was announced.
The diocese said in a statement that it chose to settle the claim “in consideration of the financial and emotional toll on all parties of an anticipated four-week trial.”
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